Karst and Caves
The nature monument Demänovská caves is the longest cave system in Slovakia.It is situated in the national nature reserve Demänovská valley in the territory of the Low Tatras national park. The system represents a unique instance of cave levels development by a ponor water flow in the fluvio-karst valley in the mid-mountain location of the Western Carpathian. Moreover, its natural merits are enhanced by a rich flowstone filling of various shapes, as well as the ice filling of the Demänovska ice cave is also important from the historical point of view. From the vast underground places , the public has acces to a part of the Demanovska cave of Liberty and Demanovska ice cave.
The Demänovská Cave of liberty
Entrance to the caves is in the Tociste valley at elevation 870 m. You can access it by zigzag foothpath leading from the parking lot, where a height difference of 52 m must be gotover. The cave is created in middle Triasic dark gray Guttenstein limestones of Kriznansky nappe, along tectonic faults by former flow of Demanovka and its lateral hanging ponor tributaries. It represents morphologicaly the most varied part of the Demanovsky cave system. The cave length is more than 8400 m, 7624 m of the cave were measured. Out of the rich flowstone filling, flowstone water lilies and other lacustrine forms / sponge, coral, grape / as well as eccentric stalactites are unique. Mighty flowstone waterfalls and columns, sphaerolithical stalactites and many other forms of stalactites and stalagmites are captivating. There is a thick onflow of white soft flowstone in the Great dome. Underground flow of Demanovka flows through the cave and gets to the surface by the Vyvieranie cave, northerly of the Demanovska cave of Liberty. Air temperature is 6.1 ` to 7.0 ` Celsius, relative huminidy 94 to 99 %.
The Demänovská ice Cave
Entrance to the cave is in the Basta cliff, where you can climb by a zigzag trail from the Kamenna cottage. The entrance lies in elevetion 840 m, about 90 m above the bottom of the valley. There is an educational path installed along the access trail. The cave is created in middle Triasic Gutenstein limestones of Kriznansky nappe, along the tectonic faults, by a past ponor flow of Demanovka. It represents the northern, bygone spring part of the Demanovsky cave system. The cave length is 1750 m. The cave species, in three development levels, consists of oval river modeled passages and dome spaces formed by collasping and frost weathering. Ice filling occurs in the lower part of the cave, mainly in the Kmetov dome. The cave descend from the entrance 40 to 50 m deep. There is floor ice, ice columns, stalactites and stalagmites. The conditions for icing began after natural breakdown of several openings to the surface in onsequence to slope modeling processes, by what the air replacement was reduced. The original filling was preserved in several cave spaces. The air temperature in glacier parts is around 0` Celsius and towards the back parts without glacier it rises from 1.3 to 5.7 `Celsius. Relative humidity is between 92 and 98 %.
The Važecká Cave
Vazecka cave is national nature monument. Is situated in the Vazecky Karst, at the meeting of Kozie vrchy /Goat Rangers/ with Liptovska basin, at the western border of Vazec. The length of cave is 530 m. It is important finding-place of cave bear / Ursus spelaeus / bones. The entrance hall was lomg know to the local people. The continuation of cave spaces was discovered in 1922. The cave was open to the public in 1934. After reconstruction in 1954, 235 m have been open to the public.
